1. Field
One or more example embodiments relate to interfacing between a baseband (“BB”) section and a radio frequency (“RF”) section, for example, a baseband unit or method for interfacing between a BB section and an RF section.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wireless base stations featuring a distributed architecture are becoming more popular and common at new site deployments of wireless equipment providers. Such distributed architectures include functional (and sometimes physical) separation of baseband (BB) and radio frequency (RF) sections of a base station.
Attempts have been made to standardize the communication protocol between the BB and RF sections, but different protocols are preferred in different applications. For example, in large RF coverage area (high power) applications, the remote RF devices (also known as remote radio heads) are expected to operate over a Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) communication link.
On the other hand, small RF coverage area (low power) applications, such as in-building environments, often employ a high number of very small remote RF devices that operate over a more commonly used communication link, such as Gigabit Ethernet, because such a network of links may already be in place throughout the building.
To meet these different needs, the wireless equipment providers develop different wireless baseband (BB) products to match up with the various interfaces expected at the remote RF devices. The wireless equipment providers use a multiplicity of BB products because the timing schemes and data stacking protocols differ significantly for these different communication interfaces, and usually cannot be supported by a common set of components and circuits.